5 January 2023
How long does it take for the dead-looking plant above to look like the one below?
The dead ball is the exact same plant as the one below: Selaginella lepidophylla, native to the Chihuahuan Desert.
See an animation of what happens when you add water in this vintage article.
p.s. The one pictured above opened quickly at first. It took 24 hours to turn green.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)
28 December 2022
After five days of extremely cold weather the temperature is rising into the 40s today and will stay above freezing in the week ahead. Hard fruits that were softened by the freeze are now poised to ferment in warmer weather. Soon we may see drunken birds.
Birds leave crabapples and Callery pears on the trees in November because they’re too hard to eat. Freezing breaks down the starches into sugars and when the fruit thaws it is soft and yummy. However yeast gets into the fruit and ferments it. Birds gobble up the soft tasty fruit. If they eat too much they get drunk.
When abundant rowan berries fermented in Gilbert, Minnesota in October 2018, waxwings gorged on them and became quite drunk.
This black-billed magpie didn’t care that he was eating fermented apples until he could barely walk. He staggers among the apples and is only slightly more agile by the end of the video.
Pumpkins are a fruit and, yes, they can ferment. When they do, squirrels get drunk.
In 2015 a study reported that fermented fruit is becoming more common because of climate change. There’s more news in this vintage article.
(photos by Kate St. John and from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)
19 November 2022
On Tuesday morning, 15 November, I found beautiful fruits on my walk in the neighborhood: Red berries on invasive burning bush (Euonymus alatus), purple berries on native American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana), and dusty blue fruit on invasive English ivy (Hedera helix).
It began to snow so I hurried home and was glad I was indoors when it came down fast. It looks peaceful in slow motion at the end of this video.
The snow stuck to the grass, parked cars, and the Pitt peregrine nest …
… then melted overnight as the temperature rose and low clouds moved in.
By Friday most leaves were gone and the only green shrubs in Schenley Park were invasive plants: Bush honeysuckle in this view …
… and bamboo near the railroad tracks.
Tonight the temperature will drop to 19 degrees for a very cold start to the new week. Brrrrr!
(photos and video by Kate St. John)
12 November 2022
Believe it or not, flowers bloomed this week in Pittsburgh. I found morning glories in Bloomfield and hawkweed at Moraine State Park.
The leaves were still beautiful on 2 November but warm weather could not bring back their vibrant colors.
Next week will be dull brown after frost zaps all the colors.
(photos by Kate St. John, forecast from the National Weather Service)
6 November 2022
In 1994 dozens of bald eagles were found convulsing, dead or paralyzed near Arkansas’ DeGray Lake. Autopsies revealed the eagles died of a new disease called avian vacuolar myelinopathy (VM) that manifests as brain lesions. The dying spread to Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Texas (hashed areas on the map below) and continues to this day. In 2021 scientists discovered what causes VM. It’s a chain of events that begins when we use an aquatic weed killer to control an invasive weed.
The invasive weed is hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata) that spreads easily and clogs waterways. It’s a huge problem in many southeastern states, especially in Florida.
Hydrilla hosts a cyanobacteria called Aetokthonos hydrillicola which does not produce toxins by itself(*). However when it comes in contact with bromide-containing aquatic weed killer, meant to kill hydrilla, it produces a neurotoxin.
Fish and waterbirds, including American coots, eat the hydrilla and consume the neurotoxin. Soon they develop VM brain lesions.
Bald eagles and other predators eat the fish and coots, often preying on sick ones because they are easy to catch.
And so bald eagles develop brain lesions and die of vacuolar myelinopathy.
The way to stop the dying is described in this NIH article Hunting the eagle killer: A cyanobacterial neurotoxin causes vacuolar myelinopathy:
Integrated chemical plant management plans to control H. verticillata should avoid the use of bromide-containing chemicals (e.g., diquat dibromide). [The neurotoxin] AETX is lipophilic with the potential for bioaccumulation during transfer through food webs, so mammals may also be at risk.
— from NIH: Hunting the eagle killer: A cyanobacterial neurotoxin causes vacuolar myelinopathy
Thus if you use a bromide-containing chemical (e.g. diquat dibromide) to control hydrilla you will unintentionally kill bald eagles.
Other solutions for controlling hydrilla without herbicide are highlighted in Florida Today (article and video): Melbourne-Tillman harvests hydrilla to avoid herbicides.
Meanwhile bald eagles aren’t out of the woods yet because we don’t know how long it will take for the neurotoxins to clear from infected lakes.
For more information see the article that inspired this topic: Science Magazine: Mysterious eagle killer identified: A new species of cyanobacteria that lives on invasive waterweed produces an unusual neurotoxin.
(photos and diagram from Wikimedia Commons, map embedded from NIH; click on the captions to see the originals)
(*) The mystery was solved when scientists discovered that the toxin came from bromides that did not occur naturally. From NIH, Hunting the eagle killer: A cyanobacterial neurotoxin causes vacuolar myelinopathy: “Laboratory cultures of the cyanobacterium, however, did not elicit VM. A. hydrillicola growing on H. verticillata collected at VM-positive reservoirs was then analyzed by mass spectrometry imaging, which revealed that cyanobacterial colonies were colocalized with a brominated metabolite. Supplementation of an A. hydrillicola laboratory culture with potassium bromide resulted in pronounced biosynthesis of this metabolite. H. verticillata hyperaccumulates bromide from the environment, potentially supplying the cyanobacterium with this biosynthesis precursor.”
1 November 2022
Just over a week ago I wrote about the sixth mass extinction during which the Earth will become a weedy place with fewer species.
Earth will be a different sort of place — soon, in just five or six human generations. My label for that place, that time, that apparently unavoidable prospect, is the Planet of Weeds.
— David Quammen, Planet of Weeds, Harper’s Magazine, October 1988
The plants pictured here are some of those weeds, all of them non-native invasives that happen to provide food for birds and small mammals.
Last week in Frick Park large flocks of American robins gobbled up oriental bittersweet, honeysuckle and porcelain berry fruits. As they continue their migration they’ll deposit the seeds along the way.
Animals that aren’t afraid of thorns eat the fruits of Japanese barberry.
After the frost softens the Callery pears robins and starlings strip the fruit from these invasive trees.
Even though the fruits are “weeds” they can be beautiful.
(photos by Kate St. John)
29 October 2022
Fall color was brilliant this week, especially at sunrise.
Bright red was gone from our hillsides as the maples faded but other leaves took up the slack in yellow and orange. Below:
A week from now the trees will be half bare.
(photos by Kate St. John)
15 October 2022
Fall colors were looking good in the City of Pittsburgh this week. A maple in Schenley Park turned shades of orange and red while the sunrise worked to match it.
This acorn in Schenley Park is a squirrel’s dream come true, the largest acorn native to North America. Bur oaks (Quercus macrocarpa also spelled burr oak) were planted in several places in the park more than 100 years ago, most notably at the main trail entrance near Bartlett Playground. This species withstands harsh conditions and is one of the most drought resistant oaks.
Goldenrods are blooming in the small meadow near Bartlett Playground.
During my walk to Schenley Plaza on 11 October I saw a peregrine fly toward Heinz Chapel’s scaffolding and disappear among the dense rods.
If he hadn’t moved I would not have found him. Ta dah! (See inside red circle.)
Amazingly he was easier to see through binoculars from Schenley Plaza tent. Too far for a photo.
(photos by Kate St. John)
10 October 2022
The season has changed and the woods in Schenley Park look different than they did a month ago. The trees are putting on fall color and deer are providing more evidence of their overpopulation in the park.
With the growing season over there is less greenery for deer to eat and there are fewer places to browse because they have already denuded many areas.
What is left has been eaten down to nubs, just visible above the unpalatable invasive plants. Below, goutweed nearly hides the tops of what used to be jewelweed while pokeweed was browsed to tiny leaves and bare stems.
As the greenery disappears deer eat tree saplings and small branches. In cases of deer overpopulation, such as Schenley Park, the young trees are foraged down to bonsai.
Schenley no longer has enough food for deer so at night they walk into neighborhoods and browse in backyards. This is happening across the city and has prompted some residents to consider a Deer Management Plan for Pittsburgh. KDKA’s Andy Sheen reports: Some Pittsburgh residents say it’s time to get deer population under control. Click on the link or the screenshot below.
(photos by Kate St. John + screenshot from KDKA)
6 October 2022
Variegated leaves add interest to the garden so horticulturalists breed plants with that in mind. Some examples of their success include goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria a.k.a. bishop’s weed or ground elder) and varieties of holly (Ilex sp.).
When these plants escape to the wild they revert to their normal non-variegated form. Goutweed is excellent example. Now invasive in Schenley Park it always has plain green leaves.
Some plants however, adopt variegation on their own. Learn why in this vintage article.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons and Kate St. John)
.jpg){kind=link}
